People must be diligent, however. The industry has been struck very hard by posers, scammers and mid-western call centers that sell job requests to the highest bidder. The problem became so bad that for a long time Google would no longer recognize new locksmith applications in its very rewarding maps directory, Google Places. The problem persists today and if people are not careful, they can find themselves in a pinch with an unlicensed locksmith.

Here’s what generally takes place: Someone gets locked out of their car in say, Chinatown or even their home in the upper west side and turns for their cellphone or a friend’s computer to search for a New York City locksmith. The search engines provide the results, and the consumer is in such a rush that they often choose one of the very first results they find. Now the bad guys realize this so they buy up all the top NYC locksmith entries and create virtual lock and key websites, just to get listed in the search engines. The consumer typically doesn’t take the time to determine which locksmiths are genuine and which aren’t. Even if they had enough time to carefully research their possibilities, these posers have gotten so good at making their phony listings look real that the majority of consumers can’t tell the difference. This often occurs whatever the search term; NYC lockout support, key replacement, change locks, change keys, misplaced key, automobile locksmith services, best locksmiths in NYC, ignition key extraction, New York security service and more.

When the customer makes the call, their request is sent to a centralized call center and then given to the highest bidder. So the customer receives a totally different locksmith than the one they thought they were calling. The problem is that many of these locksmiths aren’t even accredited or just do bad work. They typically charge as much as they believe they could get away with.

There are plenty of very good New York locksmiths which have been servicing the city for quite some time. They’ve been struggling to stay ahead, inspite of their latest challenges. Many have specialties like vehicular key extraction services, business services to change locks, security and surveillance devices, 24 hour emergency lock out service and key duplication services. Most have incredibly trustworthy mobile locksmith services as well. Shops like M&D Locks and Keys, Brooklyn Manhattan Locksmiths and Joey’s Locks and Keys are quite efficient New York locksmiths. They are licensed, certified and some of the most reliable locksmiths in the tri-state area. Furthermore, they’re legitimate local New York locksmiths. Do a search for Change Locks and you’ll have no trouble locating them.

So how does one know the good locksmiths from the bad? It’s a lot easier than you think. Don’t simply check one source. Make sure the professional locksmith you might be selecting has multiple postings. Is he or she in Google Maps? Have they got a listing in Yahoo Local? Look at other internet directories such as Citysearch, Yelp, Insider Pages, the online Yellow Pages and Show Me Local. Every one of these sites permit consumers to write testimonials in order to see what others are reporting about them.

And don’t immediately select the locksmith with all the best testimonials. The bad guys will often load up these review sites with dozens, perhaps hundreds of bogus ratings and reviews. If a listing contains a large number of 5-star reviews in Merchant Circle, for example, and hardly any reviews in Yelp, then you can certainly bet something is wrong. Yahoo and Bing are much worse than Google at the moment. Google is mostly reliable and it’s very difficult to publish artificial reviews in Yelp.

Finding a trustworthy New York locksmith is not that difficult if you take the time to search a few of the free tools that are available to you on-line.